How to touch up these scales?

[Bevel]

I'm fairly sure they are wood. Did a little sanding and then flamed the dust. Very mild smell of wood and no horn stink.
Will proceed with light sanding and then some oil.

That residue on the paper looks like a combination of age, finish and ebony.
Here are ebony scales I made for comparison. The sanding dust is remarkably fine and had an earthy smell IIRC.

Ebony sawdust is brown like on your sandpaper.
Believe it or not, ebony sawdust is a marketed commodity.

Maybe I should have hung onto mine

Thanks. After a little oil and some rubbing with a cloth the scales are looking a bit better.
I think they are wood/ebony but I plan to just do very light sanding and a little oil which should work for either.
Here is a photo where the camera shows more than I saw.
View attachment 1482422

Those dark streaks look like ebony to me. See pic 2 above.

I'm slightly surprised that people used ebony for scales tbh as it's insanely hard and fragile, so be careful if you ever need to tighten up the pivot pin!

I think ebony was common enough on good razors back in the day though not as common as horn and later plastic.
As for being fragile I'm not sure I'd agree. Here's my finished scales and, while I'm not going to try, I'd say I'd struggle to snap these scales in half they're so strong. They might snap due to being separated by the blade but in pic 2 above you'd have trouble when it's just them together.

 

[cotedupy]

That residue on the paper looks like a combination of age, finish and ebony.
Here are ebony scales I made for comparison. The sanding dust is remarkably fine and had an earthy smell IIRC.
View attachment 1483063View attachment 1483064

Maybe I should have hung onto mine


Those dark streaks look like ebony to me. See pic 2 above.

I think ebony was common enough on good razors back in the day though not as common as horn and later plastic.
As for being fragile I'm not sure I'd agree. Here's my finished scales and, while I'm not going to try, I'd say I'd struggle to snap these scales in half they're so strong. They might snap due to being separated by the blade but in pic 2 above you'd have trouble when it's just them together.
View attachment 1483065

Generally ebony is super-duper hard. Which kinda makes it strong in one way - it doesn't deform easily under pressure - you can't bend ebony. But because of that it is quite brittle in comparison to a lot of wood, so with shock force it can crack.

Very unlikely to be a problem with razor scales, apart from during peening, and looks like you've done a sterling job on yours there already! Looks lovely, really like the preservation of the grain you've got.

 

[Bevel]

Looks lovely, really like the preservation of the grain you've got.

Cheers, it's sanded to 12k and covered with superglue.

 

[cotedupy]

Cheers, it's sanded to 12k and covered with superglue.

Ah interesting, I'll have a read of your thread, ta.

I've seen people talk about using superglue as a kind of finishing coat in this way, but never tried on anything myself (yet). Looks great on your scales.

 

[JaggardJ]

Here is how things turned out with the BLO.
The scales have a nice even finish

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

If you want a bit of gloss rub on some wax, I like Howards Feed & Wax. It is a blend of beeswax, carnauba wax, orange oil.

It will give some gloss and protection, smells good and work well to protect steel also.

Nice work.

 

[cotedupy]

If you want a bit of gloss rub on some wax, I like Howards Feed & Wax. It is a blend of beeswax, carnauba wax, orange oil.

It will give some gloss and protection, smells good and work well to protect steel also.

Nice work.

Can one wax horn scales after sanding? Or is oil better?

(I tend to use oil for both wood and horn, but I've got various different waxes I could use too...)

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

I suppose you could, though I neve have. I have waxed tool handles and applied oil over the wax after a period of time to re-hydrate the wood. The oil penetrates the wax.

I oil horn scales to re-hydrate and buff with Green Stainless compound to a high sheen and finish with a good metal polish, I like Maas, by hand with paper towels.

 

[JaggardJ]

I ended up using diy beeswax polish, as I had a candle laying about. It added only a little gloss which is fine as I like the matt sheen it has